State News-Thursday

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) - Luzerne County prosecutors say a judge's clerk provided "strategic advice" to the defense during a previous high-profile murder trial. Now they're demanding a differnent judge for another murder trial with the same defendant, 32-year-old Hugo Selenski. He's the a charismatic former bank robber on whose property authorities found at least five sets of human remains. He was acquitted in his first trial. Prosecutors not only make an accusation against the clerk, but also accuse Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Junior himself of bias. They note that Olszewski had dismissed an escape charge against Selenski and say he told a reporter that Selenski is"extremely intelligent." Selenski's lawyer notes that Olszewski ruled in the prosecution's favor for the admission of skeletal remains into evidence in the first trial.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress voted Wednesday to spend up to six million dollars to ensure that the Americans fleeing Lebanon have transportation, medical care and lodging. The Health and Human Services Department expects to reach the program's one million dollar spending limit this week. The bill went to President Bush after the House and Senate each passed it by voice vote. The program allows the government to provide temporary assistance to citizens and their families when they arrive in the United States after fleeing a country due to destitution, illness,invasion, war or other crises. Repatriation centers have opened at airports in Baltimore and Philadelphia airports to assist the eight-thousand to 15-thousand Americans returning from Lebanon.